Hay loft

The hay loft is a space of about 4.5m x 5.5m that is separate from the main house and accessed via the outside seating area. It has vented tiles (mandolati) on three sides and the fourth wall is the exterior stone wall of the main house. The opening at the front has a pulley for hoisting up hay or crops for storage in this dry vented space.

Most of the pictures below are from the viewing and you will see that it was basically used as a room for junk and old garden tools. The floor is in a shocking state and has a trecherous trap door down into the stable below.

When viewing the house, the agent suggested to us that we could remove some of the tiles and install a picture window to take advantage of the view across the valley. I think this was just sales talk and our geometra has made it clear that there’s no way we would get permission to do that. In any case, I think we would like to keep the traditional look of the house.

We have toyed with the idea of creating an entrance to this space directly from the dining room, but there are structural considerations to take into account and the floors are on two different levels. If we can get the kitchen door moved, accessing this space from the covered seating area should be just fine.

Our current thinking is to weather proof this space with double or tripple glazed windows inside the tiles a bit like this example:

The windows will all need to open inwards so that they can be cleaned.

See also